Emperor & Chariot Social Link
by Reecie Girl
Summary: What if the other characters had social links with each other, instead of just Yu? This is the social link of Kanji Tatsumi and Chie Satonaka.
1. Rank 1

Late afternoon had settled onto Inaba one beautiful spring day. Kanji walked quietly home, alone as usual but he had long since stopped being bothered by that. After his experience in the T.V. world, he was trying his best to not let other people's opinions trouble him as much, so the few whispers he heard as he strolled were ignored. He was feeling pretty proud of himself as he turned the corner onto the riverbank.

"Hiyah!" Kanji stopped in his tracks, curious about where the strange noise he had just heard had come from. Looking around, he noticed his senpai, Chie, kicking at the air in a clearing near the river. He was about to continue walking, but thought better of it. Chie-senpai had already accepted him into her group of friends, so he shouldn't be afraid to talk to her or any of his senpais. In spite of this knowledge. Kanji's stomach was filled with knots of nervousness.

"H-hey! Chie-senpai!" Kanji called, walking over to her. Chie stopped what she was doing and turned towards him.

"Oh." Chie said, somewhat startled by Kanji's sudden appearance. "Hello Kanji. What's up?"

"Nothin' much." Kanji replied. "Just wondering what you're doing over here."

"Training!" Chie said happily, grinning from ear to ear. "We need to be ready for the T.V. world, right?" Kanji considered for a moment.

"Ya, I s'pose." he said. "But I can't think of any shadows that can stand up to a good Kanji pounding!" Kanji punched his hand, practically oozing confidence.

"How can you be so sure?" Chie asked. "You haven't been in that world as much as I have. They've been getting tougher each time. A little training never hurt anybody."

"Hmm...you do have a point...OK, I'm in!"

"What?" Chie said, confused.

"I'm in! I want to train too! Ain't no shadow gonna get the best of me!"

"Oh." Chie said, taken aback by Kanji's sudden outburst of interest. Her tone made Kanji start to worry. Maybe she wanted to train alone and he was imposing? Maybe she didn't want him around at all? Maybe the only reason his senpais put up with him at all was because they felt sorry for him? All of these ideas quickly spun around in his mind until Chie finally responded.

"Well, I usually train with Narukami, but the more the merrier, right? I'll let you know whenever we plan to meet up." Kanji smiled as all of his silly fears left his mind. He needed to get himself out of the mindset that everyone who meets him will automatically hate him. He was never going to make any friends that way.

"Cool," he said. "So...um, I'm not doing anything right now...Would you like some company?" Chie smiled at him.

"Sure! Let's get started..." Kanji set his bag down and started following Chie's training instructions. Her training set was pretty rigorous, which took Kanji by surprise. She was much tougher than she looked and she almost left him in the dust more than once. But he was happy for the exercise and they trained together until sundown.

Kanji and Chie feel a faint bond forming between them…


	2. Rank 2

Chie found herself in a clearing next to the Samegawa river, training with the last person she ever thought she would be: Kanji Tatsumi. She was afraid to speak to the guy less than a month ago and now she was letting him through punches at him! She would be forever grateful that he was on their side, however. And, even though he turned out to be a big softy at heart, he still hit like a freight train.

As they sparred, Chie dodged a punch and quickly swept Kanji's leg. He fell to the ground hard and Chie backed off, assuming he was going to back down. But then Kanji grabbed a handful of dirt, threw it at Chie's face, and jumped back up. Before her vision cleared, Kanji had her in an arm hold.

"OK! OK! I give!" Chie said and Kanji let her go. He looked pretty damn proud of himself, which pissed her off. "You cheated!"

"No I didn't!" Kanji protested. "I improvised. A shadow isn't gonna just give up because it looks like we're winning. They're gonna come up with a different way to come at us. You need to be ready for that, senpai."

"What shadow is going to throw dirt in our eyes?" Chie asked, feeling a bit embarrassed about letting him get the best of her. Kanji shook his head and made a face.

"You know what I mean! You have to stop thinking like an honorable kung fu master and more like a bare-knuckles brawler!"

"Soooo, like you?" Kanji smiled and shrugged.

"Hey, when you've got it, you've got it." he said, smug as hell. "Seriously though, what are you gonna do if you get jumped? Or have to fight an entire group alone? You can't always fight fair. And not just in the TV world. What if, I dunno...What if some muscle bound, half naked mad man in a cape jumped out of the shadows and attacked you?"

"A 'muscle bound, half naked mad man in a cape'?" Chie repeated, raising an eyebrow. Where did he get this stuff? "When is that ever gonna happen?"

"How do you know it won't? That's the point!"

"Whatever." Chie said, rolling her eyes. Then something occurred to her. "Well, you did take down an entire biker gang by yourself...maybe I should try to take some pointers from you."

"Um...thanks, I guess..." Kanji replied, clearly unsure whether or not she meant that as a complement. Chie laughed.

"Come on, let's stop talking about crazy caped men and try this again. Except this time, it'll be you calling it quits!"

"Bring it on!" Kanji said with a grin. Chie came at him with everything she had, determined to get him to concede. And, while she didn't beat him this day, she knew she was getting closer and closer with every kick, as well as getting closer to being able to protect all of the people she cared for. Including her newest friend, even though it was clear he didn't really need any help from her.

Kanji and Chie feel their relationship has grown yet deeper…


End file.
